Systems have been developed to monitor, for example, vehicle tire pressure, and to report the tire pressure to a receiver at a central monitoring station using radio transmissions. A typical remote automotive tire monitoring system includes a plurality of tire-based sensory transponders and a central, vehicle-based arrangement. The sensory transponders include a component that senses a tire condition, such as tire inflation pressure or tire temperature. Each transponder is capable of outputting a coded transmission that conveys sensed tire condition information and an identifier for reception by the vehicle-based arrangement. Within the vehicle-based arrangement, an electronic control unit (“ECU”) processes the conveyed information and controls provision of information regarding the sensed tire conditions to a vehicle operator. During operation of such a system, the vehicle operator is readily notified of a current tire condition, such as a low inflation pressure in a tire.
For a vehicle operator to determine which tire has a condition of interest (e.g., a low inflation pressure), information provided to the vehicle operator must unambiguously identify the location (e.g., right front) of the tire that has the condition of interest. In order for the ECU to provide such tire location information, the ECU has a memory that stores tire identification information for comparison with the identification conveyed from the transponder. Also, within the memory, a certain tire location is associated with each stored tire's identification. Thus, once a provided identification is matched to a stored identification, a location on the vehicle is associated with the provided tire condition information. Accordingly, the operator is made aware that the tire at a certain location (e.g., right front) has the certain condition (e.g., low inflation pressure).
In order to start testing a tire sensor on a vehicle, the tool needs to know the tire pressure monitoring system used in the vehicle. This information is then used by the tool to communicate in the proper communication protocols of the vehicle.